A director at ‘big four’ accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Australia has quit the firm to join crypto exchange bitcoin.com.au as its newest CEO.
Ben Ingram left PwC Australia back in March, where he was responsible for digital strategy, accounting and consulting, as its director before taking over the exchange as its chief executive, Business Insider Australia reports. The executive joins a long list of finance high-profile professionals switching their traditional careers for exciting opportunities in the crypto world.
PwC has made the news several times in connection to blockchain projects. The company is known for supporting several distributed ledger technology ventures, going as far as working on a blockchain auditing service.
Plan to Bring Crypto Products to Corporate Pension Plans
Ingram will reportedly be responsible for working on the overall platform’s functionality, as well as developing crypto-based financial products for areas such as companies’ pension plans, also known as superannuation.
The CEO explained his crypto exchange is so much more than that — it is an entry point for users to get exposed to Bitcoin in a simple manner. Ingram says their customers can as easily acquire the digital currency as getting rid of it — one of the features of the platform is same-day settlements.
While the crypto exchange currently only supports Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies in the world, there are plans in sight to add other digital currencies in the future.
Millennials Expected to Turn to Self-Managed Funds
However, Ingram’s focus seems to be on bringing crypto products to superannuation, as he stated, “There are not many tangible examples of crypto-based investment products yet. SMSF’s have typically been the preserve of the wealthy. It’s a vehicle where you can manage your own investments, and you also carry the cost of that audit.” Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSF) are superannuation trust structures in which its members are also trustees of the fund.
The CEO believes millennials owning crypto assets are more likely to turn to self-management, as the underlying blockchain technology allows for easy and fast auditing. While he agrees we still don’t have a full picture yet of how blockchain will impact our overall future, he’s positive it is the future.
He explained:
“We’re in the early-stage development of a new protocol. I think the core premise of distributed ledger technology (DLT) has very obvious widespread appeal. Even if the tech capabilities at present aren’t capable, I think humans will prevail. We know this tech doesn’t have a dead-end. While the evolutionary path hasn’t been fully determined, I think there’s enough evidence that there is a path.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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